


A Day in the Life

by yellow_sunrise



Series: West-Allen Clan [3]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Domestic, F/M, Fluff, Sibling Bonding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-03
Updated: 2018-04-03
Packaged: 2019-04-17 16:24:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,564
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14192961
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yellow_sunrise/pseuds/yellow_sunrise
Summary: Don's day starts out pretty awful, but it turns around.





	A Day in the Life

**Author's Note:**

> Listen...I love Don Allen with all my heart. Also, I didn't state this in her first appearance, but Victoria is a Chinese woman, hence the tag.

Sometimes, Don really loved his life. There was nothing more satisfying than putting in a day of honest work and getting to save the day with your best friend and then coming home to a loving girlfriend, who didn’t even get angry at you for sometimes cutting dates short. But today was not one of those perfect days.

Today, Don was late to work, which wasn’t really a problem, since he officially worked at S.T.A.R labs. But it was really the principle of the thing. Don hated being late, and he was rarely ever late. But today the power in his building on gone off in the middle of the night and his phone had died part way through the night and his alarm never went off. He cursed as he flashed around his apartment, trying to get ready quickly, but he was so late that there wasn’t a way to not be late. He forewent taking his car and just ran to work, arriving in front of Uncle Cisco.

“Sorry I’m late, my building’s power went off in the middle of the night and my alarm never went off--”

“Hey little dude. Relax, you’re actually one of the few people that works here that actually stays ahead of their work. You’re good,”

“Thanks, I appreciate that.” he shared a quick hug with Uncle Cisco and went to work. Most of Don’s work was schematics for the ideas that the real geniuses came up with. But he liked figuring out how they would work in real life, how to make those ideas come to fruition. It was really satisfying when he could finally send in work to be examined and for prototypes to be made. 

Today, he was struggling to even understand the work. He just couldn’t focus and Don was getting frustrated. Usually he would message his family or Victoria, but his mom was investigating some corruption in city’s council, a story she’d been trying to break for going on three years. His dad was away with the rest of the Justice League with Nora and Victoria was away with her mom promoting environmental preservation. Everyone who he cared about most was too busy. 

Well, not everyone.

Don reached for his cellphone and when his hand only found the emptiness of his pocket, he sighed.

“Of course I left my phone in my apartment dead. Great. Truly the best day ever,” Don sighed. Rather than stress about it, he powered through what he could do until it was lunchtime. When it rolled around, his stomach demanded to be fed, so he reached for a calorie bar and ate it absentmindedly.

“You know you should still be eating real food, right?” 

“Poppa!” he exclaimed, standing up to greet his grandpa, Joe West.

“How ya doing son?” his grandpa asked, hugging him tightly and patting his back.

“Stressed. Late to work and I somehow managed to get almost no work done today,” he sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. His grandpa only gave him a sympathetic smile and brought him in close and lead him out the door.

“Come on, we’ll talk about it over lunch. What do you feel like?”

“Big Belly Burger. Lots and lots of Big Belly burger,” he said. Poppa laughed and patted him on the shoulder.

“Whatever you need son,” he razzled him an bit, and the tension melted away, just a bit. Lunch with his grandpa was pretty relaxed. Don was listening as Poppa told him about his and Cecile’s vacation, and his aunt, a true free spirit backpacking across Europe.

“Yeah, she called me to tell me about the Notre Dame yesterday.

“I’ve been there,” Don mentioned casually, recalling one of is many rebellious antics where he’d run to far away locales just to piss of his mom. 

Those ever ended very well for him when he ended back at home.

His grandpa, looked at him knowingly with a grin.

“Oh, I remember. I told your dad that a long time ago that I hoped he had kids who’d torture so I could laugh in his face, and you sure helped me keep that promise,” he said, taking a sip of his iced tea. Don rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, avoiding eye contact.

“Yeah, I was a nightmare for sure. At least I grew out of it?” he pointed out, and his grandpa laughed, shaking his head.

“You definitely gave Iris her first grey hairs.”

The rest of lunch was thankfully relaxed and Don went back to work. Of course when he got there, Nora was tinkering with some of the small half finished prototypes. She looked up at him and waved, her hair pulled into a lazy and poofy bun.

“Oh no. What’s wrong?” he asked. Nora stood up straight and opened her arms.

“Come on, bring it in. I haven’t seen you in almost a week!” she exclaimed, making grabby hands at Don. He scoffed, but hugged her anyway, smiling widely. He lifted her up a bit and she squealed. Nora was the youngest of the two and even though the difference was a meager two minutes she acted like a true baby sometimes.

“Yeah, yeah. If you didn’t get me a souvenir it’s pointless.”

She pulled away and reached into her shoulder bag.

“Luckily for you, you have a loving baby sister. Ta-da! Your gift,” with an exaggerated flourish she presented a...piece of pale rock, misshapen and she size of a small melon.

“A rock. I remember you being better at this when we were kids,” he mused, taking the rock.

“Don’t be a jackass. This is from an actual meteorite. It was analyzed at the watchtower and it’s harmless but it’s a space rock. I had to beg Batman to take this home,” she said, her face twisting unhappily.

“Well color me surprised. I know you and Batman don’t really get along. Thanks. But it looks like metal actually,” he said, taking the rock and looking at it. He vibrated his hand and broke a small piece off, enough for a sample.

“Do you have a printout about its properties?” he asked. Nora pulled out a thick sheaf of paper and handed it over. Once he was suitably distracted she looked at his workshop and made a face.

“You should really straighten up in here. It’s a mess. How can you even find anything?” she asked. She started to poke around his things and Don gave her a tired look.

“Nora. Really?”

“What? I’m just looking around.” she said. Don finally realized that Nora was uncomfortable, and even looked upset.

“Okay, what’s up?” he asked, finally. Looking at Nora and crossing his arms.

She sighed and fidgeted with her blazer before clearing her throat.

“I’m here to apologize. For being rude to Victoria the last time I saw her.”

Don nodded slowly, pursing his lips before rolling his eyes.

“So you admit it? I thought you were acting weird. So what’s your issue? Why do you dislike her?” he asked.

Nora let out an annoyed breath and crossed her arms.

“She’s just always taking up your time. You hang out with her family all the time, but she never talks to us. And you’re always with her. It’s driving me nuts. If we didn’t look alike, I’d have forgotten what you looked like.” she told him, pouting just a little.

“I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but our family isn’t exactly normal. She doesn’t know about the whole speedster thing. And I don’t want to have o explain to her that most of my family are metahumans,”

“But we are metahumans. And if you wanna date her seriously you have to tell her and soon. It’s been three months already.”

“I just. I’m not sure I’m ready to commit that much,” he admitted. Nora facepalmed but she looked perfectly understanding.

“Does she know that? I mean you guys are attached at the hip, you spend the night together, like, how can you not be serious now? Don are you for real?” she asked. He sighed.

“Look, if you’re going to yell at me can we do it somewhere else? I work here.”

“Whatever, sure. Actually let’s make it a dinner. Invite Victoria so I can apologize in person. Deal?” she asked.

Don smiled and nodded.

“Sure thing. Now get out of my workshop, nerd.” she elbowed him as she left, dodging his retaliation and skipping out.

Don barely made it through work, but he managed to text Victoria and get her to agree to dinner.

They were meeting at a pizza place near his parents’ house that Nora adored. She was waiting for them outside and waved, her smile genuine and happy.

“Hey guys. Let’s go, let’s go!” she ushered them in.

“Hey Nora baby! How ya doing?” the owner asked, smiling at Nora who waved and went over to hug the woman.

“Hey Auntie! I’m good, how are you?”

“I’m good! You know I’m out here living my best life. Don Allen is that you?” she asked, her eyebrow raised in shock.

“Yeah it’s me Miss Ethel.” he sighed and went in for a hug.

“I haven’t seen you in ages. I see y’all brought someone new. Who’s this pretty girl?” Ethel asked, nodding at Victoria who flushed and bowed slightly.

“Hi,” she said shyly. “I’m Victoria, nice to meet you,” she reached forward to shake Ethel’s hand.

“That’s my girlfriend,” Don said proudly, wrapping an arm around Victoria’s waist. 

“She’s beautiful Don. I’m glad you’re getting settled, leaving the house. Nora, when are you going to bring a guest?” Ethel asked.

“I’ll date someone if he’s better than my dad,” Nora said easily.

“Mhm, Daddy’s girl through and through. Well, you all find a place to seat and I’ll send somebody to take your order. Y’all have fun,” Ethel said and went back to the kitchen, barking orders loud enough for Don to faintly make it out.

Victoria had been very charmed by Ethel and she chattered excitedly about the place.

“This place is so nice. So does she own it?”

“Yeah Ethel’s been here a long time. She’s great right?” Nora asked, beaming brightly. Don watched as they were suddenly talking, trading their restaurant experiences, completely ignoring Don, who was able to pick out what they’d want to eat.

Nora was still a little awkward, but Victoria seemed to think it was charming, or cute at the very least.

“I’ve always been jealous of curly hair,” Victoria was saying. “Of course I love my own hair, but I think curls just look very youthful!”

“Oh but you look so young yourself!”

“It runs in the family. My mom is sixty but she looks fifty. But she could’ve lied about her age all these years. I can barely understand Chinese so it’s possible.” Victoria joked, laughing just a little. Nora leaned forward.

“Oh you can speak Chinese?”

“Enough to talk to another adult. I can read and write it much better though,”

Nora sighed dreamily.

“I’ve always wanted to speak another language but I’m terrible with linguistics.”

“I think the fastest way to learn if you’re not speaking it every day is to just learn the words and do the grammar later. As long as you say things in the right order it’s fine,” Victoria said, waving a hand dismissively.

“Somehow, I don’t think that would actually help you learn the language.” Don said, resting a hand casually on Victoria’s leg.

“Sure it does! But honestly, it’s nice to have another vocabulary for the things I can’t say in English,” she admitted.

“Wait, where’s the menu?” Nora asked.

“Still in front of you, like it has been for five minutes.”

Nora waved her hand.

“I already know what I’m getting. But Victoria you might want to look, there’s some great stuff in there.”

Don left for the bathroom and when he got back the atmosphere was so much more relaxed and he was less tense as a result.

And so, dinner went on seamlessly and Don felt better knowing that his sister and his girlfriend could at least get along, though it was a little weird since he knew his sister had such a hard time being nice to her just a few days ago.

Still, it was a nice dinner and when he went home with Victoria she wrapped her arms around him, and swayed.

“Your sister is really nice,” she told him, smiling shyly up at him.

“Yeah? I always thought she was kind of awful,” he said.

“You guys are really close. I’m kind of jealous,” she told him. “And she apologized too, for the other day,”

“And?” he asked, hoping that it went well.

“Oh I forgave her. She explained and everything.” she said. Don smiled and pecked her nose, laughing when she wrinkled her nose.

“Good. Now, what are you up for?”

“Hm, movie and cuddling sounds good. Let me take off m make up. You pick tonight,” she said, stepping away and going to the bathroom.

“Don’t get mad if I pick a horror movie,” he called taking off his jacket and tossing it onto the couch. 

“You better not!” she yelled back.

Don was perusing her personal DVDs when he got a text.

`Robbery in progress two blocks from your location. Perp is armed.’ the app notification pinged and he rolled his eyes.

He twiddled the ring on his finger. He was out of the apartment block and in his suit before the notification could disappear. When he got there, he ran in a perpetual circle, giving the appearance of a small tornado. He had the gunman in the police station and was back in the apartment soon after. He looked a bit windswept, but he could pass that off as playing with his hair.

“Find anything yet?” Victoria asked.

“No. Your movie collection is pretty plain,” he said. Plus, they’d watched about two-thirds of them and he wasn’t really feeling the movies there.

“Okay we’ll turn on Flix then.” she responded. 

“Well hurry up girl!” he called back. Victoria poked her head out, her face paler and her small imperfections on display.

“Give me a second, jeez.”

While she finished up, Don got her a water bottle and sat on the couch, one arm resting along the back of the couch.

When she finished, she plopped down next to him, before laying out, so that her head was on his lap.

They barely made it pass the first act before falling asleep.

When he woke up in the middle of the night, so Victoria turning off the TV and hanging up his jacket on the coat rack, he yawned loudly, drawing her attention.

“Babe you’re up,” she said, rubbing her eyes tiredly.

“Yeah, sorry about conking out on you. Time for bed?”

“Oh yeah.” she nodded.

Don stripped his shirt and got into jus this boxers and raised an eyebrow when Victoria rolled her eyes.

“You’re such a show off,” she said fondly. She put on her own pajamas, a knee length nightdress, and wrapped her body around Don’s, sighing happily.

“Goodnight,” he yawned, pecking her forehead. 

“Night, babe.” she said, tucking her face into his neck and promptly snoring. Don laughed and closed his eyes, a smile on his face.

Sometimes, Don really loved his life.


End file.
